dog-nose
dog-nose verb: to nose around like a dog, to sniff as if searching.
Verb (1)
dog-nose (third-person singular simple present dog-noses, present participle dog-nosing, simple past and past participle dog-nosed)
- To nose around like a dog, to sniff as if searching
- While Colonel John W. Sink, th’ eminent Grand Island cigar manufacturer, was out “dog-nosing” jack rabbits th’ other night, a glee club serenaded his home for two hours without response.1916 February 5, Anonymous, “Hort Flug Sez”, United States Tobacco Journal Volume 85, No.8, page 17
- They come without being called, dog-nosing the air as though they sense a hard surface upon which they can lean or dash their heads.2017 March 17, Trent Michaels, “Nightwood by Djuna Barnes” (book review)
Verb (2)
dog-nose (third-person singular simple present dog-noses, present participle dog-nosing, simple past and past participle dog-nosed)
- To diagnose
- And now here she was, wearing upon the delicate health of her hostess ; dependent upon the surgery of a more than rural doctor, who said he had dog-nosed the case ; and reduced entirely to her imagination and the daily mail (it seemed to make everything worse that it was brought five miles by a...1879, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, An Old Maid’s Paradise, Chatto and Windus, published 1885, page 29
- So I dog-nosed my case, as it were, and proved to her that it was something that couldn’t be reached by boneset tea.1899, Izora Cecilia Chandler, Elvira Hopkins of Tompkin’s Corner, Wilbur B. Ketchan, page 87
Adjective
dog-nose (not comparable)
- Related to a dog’s nose
- He would smash his face into the doors at the end of his walks, trying to hasten their opening, and leave his little brown dog-nose smudges at his level.2011, Toni Johnstone, Dogified: A Poodle's Memoir, Tate Publishing, page 121
- Hang a bell from your doorknob at dog-nose height.2011, Amy Fernandez, Maltese, Kennel Club Books, page 72
Forms of dog-nose
| third-person singular present | dog-noses |
|---|---|
| present participle | dog-nosing |
| past participle | dog-nosed |
| past | dog-nosed |
Origin of dog-nose
From dog + nose.
Folk etymology of diagnose.
Questions about dog-nose
- What does dog-nose mean?
- Dog-nose means to nose around like a dog, to sniff as if searching.
- What part of speech is dog-nose?
- Dog-nose can be a verb or an adjective.
- What is the past tense of dog-nose?
- The past tense of dog-nose is dog-nosed.
Words near dog-nose in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dog-nose (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “dog-nose.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dog-nose. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.